A Morning Walk into Light

By Royal Rhodes

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               after Rainer Maria Rilke

When was any human so awake
as in the morning today?
Not just bloom and brook
but even the roof-beam delights.

Its own age-hardened edge,
the heavens high-lighted,
finds its feeling: island,
his answer, the world.

All breathe and thank.
O you anxieties of night,
how traceless you sank.

From gatherings of light
was its darkening made,
that itself so purely contradicts.

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Royal Rhodes taught religious studies for almost 40 years. His poems have appeared in various journals, including Ekstasis, Ekphrastic Review, The Seventh Quarry, and The Montreal Review, among others. His poetry and art collaborations have been published with The Catbird [on the Yadkin] Press in North Carolina.

Royal's other work on Foreshadow:
A Road Through Ohio Spring (Poetry, April 2023)
A Pilgrim's Song (Poetry, May 2023)
Journey to Silence (Poetry, July 2023)
Remember David (Poetry, July 2023)
Magnolia (Poetry, October 2023)